Shigeru Fukudome

Shigeru Fukudome (1 February 1891-6 February 1971) was a Vice Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.

Biography
Shigeru Fukudome was born on 1 February 1891 in Yonago, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. In 1939, he was promoted to Rear Admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and he served as Chief-of-Staff of the Combined Fleet under Isoroku Yamamoto and Mineichi Koga during World War II. On 31 March 1944 he was captured by Filipino guerrillas after a plane crash in Cebu on the same day as Mineichi Koga's death, and he was later released by the United States to prevent the Japanese from retaliating against civilians for his capture. On 10 October 1944, he was assigned to command the Japanese 2nd Air Fleet on Taiwan, but in January 1945 the air fleet was merged with the Japanese 1st Air Fleet and he was reassigned to the Japanese 10th Area Fleet. It was defeated at the May 1945 Battle of the Malacca Strait by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy, and he surrendered to the United States at the war's end. He was cooperative with the Americans, but he served time in prison for executing two downed American airmen. Fukudome helped in the creation of the Japan Self-Defense Force after the war's end, and he died at the age of 80 in 1971.